The Chosen Key Word in this Chapter is “Forsaken” it comes from the Greek Word “enkataleipo” which means “to forsake, to abandon utterly.”
The trial ends, the cross goes up, and for a moment, even Jesus feels utterly alone. Welcome to Bible Life Basics Chapter Reviews, I am Chris and this is Matthew 27.
Jesus is bound and delivered to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. Judas, overcome with remorse, returns the thirty pieces of silver and hangs himself. Pilate, finding no real fault in Jesus and warned by his wife’s troubling dream, offers the crowd a choice between releasing Jesus or a notorious prisoner named Barabbas. Stirred up by the chief priests, the crowd chooses Barabbas and demands that Jesus be crucified. Pilate symbolically washes his hands of the decision, and Jesus is flogged, mocked with a crown of thorns and a purple robe, and led away to be crucified.
At Golgotha, Jesus is crucified between two thieves, with a sign above His head reading, “THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.” Passersby, chief priests, and even the criminals beside Him mock Him, echoing the temptation from the wilderness, “If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.” Darkness covers the land from the sixth to the ninth hour, and Jesus cries out, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani,” meaning “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” The Greek word behind this forsaking is “enkataleipo,” meaning to abandon or leave utterly alone.
Jesus cries out again with a loud voice and gives up His spirit. At that moment, the veil of the temple tears in two from top to bottom, the earth quakes, and rocks split apart. A Roman centurion watching declares, “Truly this was the Son of God.” Joseph of Arimathaea, a wealthy disciple, requests Jesus’ body from Pilate, wraps it in clean linen, and lays it in his own new tomb, rolling a great stone across the entrance. Chief priests, remembering Jesus’ prediction of rising again, ask Pilate to secure the tomb, so guards are posted and the stone is sealed.
In that moment on the cross, Jesus experienced something no one else ever has, complete separation from His Father, taking on the full weight of what sin deserved. The tearing of the temple veil at that exact instant shows what His death accomplished, direct access to God, opened for everyone, at the very moment Jesus Himself felt most forsaken.
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